TOURISM MANAGEMENT

Crisis Recovery Theory and Tourism Management

Crisis Recovery Theory and Tourism Management

Introduction

Many contemporary approaches to “empowerment” involve the provision of rigid rules and/or abstract guidelines to frontline employees. However, these approaches fail to take into account the specific circumstances and experiences of particular staff members and their relationship to customers. The present paper contends that experienced frontline staff can be trained in appropriate decision-making techniques that build upon their practical abilities and experience to provide service-recovery solutions that benefit both the customer and the organisation.

This paper discusses Crisis Recovery Theory and Tourism Management. It also discuses a few leading Crisis Recovery theories and compare them and provide a short discussion of how they can benefit tourism managers in their planning to deal with potential crises.

Discussion

A crisis is synonymous with an event which disrupts the pre-existing state of affairs. It is a serious event that can have many causes including natural, political, financial or technical. Whatever the cause, there is a widely held expectation that after appropriate steps have been taken, the situation will return to normality, with the various people and organizations resuming their previous ways of working together. However, increasingly, it is recognized that after a serious crisis, a new set of business relations and ways of doing things becomes established as the new normality. (Bamford 2005)

Overview of Crisis Management Theory

Faulkner (2001) identified the following key factors:

An prompting event, which is so significant that it challenges the existing structure, routine operations or survival of the organization.

A turning point, when decisive change, which may have both positive and negative connotations, is imminent.

The administrative environment is high threat, short decision time and an element of surprise and urgency.

The state of affairs becomes characterized by 'fluid, unstable, dynamic' situations.

There is a perception of an inability to cope among those directly affected.

Crisis Recovery Theory provides an insightful paradigm for the investigation of rapidly changing complex situations where multiple influences impact on non-equilibrium systems.

Given the complex, interdependent structure of the international tourism industry, it is not surprising that many different crises can impact its operations. This book presents analytical accounts of crises which have afflicted tourism in many parts of the globe, and of many different types including terrorism, epidemics and natural disasters. Overall, it is clear that no tourism sector or location should be complacent; instead, all should plan for the eventuality that a crisis could affect them suddenly and dramatically. (Baum 1993)

Empowerment as a means of service recovery

A personalised response to service recovery enables emotional reactions to be taken into account and a fairer solution (for the customer) to be provided (Berry, 1995; Kiely and Armistead, 2004). To establish such a personalised response, managers need to be committed to customer service, customers should be encouraged to complain, and staff members should have appropriate attitudes to complainants (Lewis and Clacher, 2001). Technical training and the sharing of good practice are necessary preconditions to resolving problems in the service encounter (Normann, 2000), but the emotional reactions of customers to service ...